1,000 Workers In Spring Hill Vote To Form A Collective Bargaining Unit – CleanTechnica

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Spring Hill, Tennessee, used to be known for its avant-garde Saturn plant — the GM fan fav division was designed to compete in the 1980s with Japanese imports. Now Spring Hill has notoriety for another reason: a majority of workers at the Ultium Cells plant there have signed cards to join the United Auto Workers (UAW), and GM has agreed to recognize their union.

According to the union press release, Ultium, a joint venture of General Motors and LG Energy Solution, did not interfere with the decision by its 1,000 employees to join the UAW. “The workers organized without facing threats or intimidation and won their union once a majority of workers signed cards,” the UAW stated.

The Ultium Cells’ 2.8 million-square-foot Spring Hill plant cost $2.6 billion and took two and half years to build. In March it delivered its first lithium-ion battery cells to GM, which are currently used in GM’s all-electric Cadillac LYRIQ.

The Spring Hill facility, which started production this year, is the second Ultium factory built in the US and the second to go union. The first, in Lordstown, Ohio, opened in 2022, and workers there also organized with the UAW. They won a breakthrough contract that sets a new standard for the EV industry — now strong health and safety standards and life-changing wage increases are part of their labor package. By 2027, the pay for Ultium Lordstown workers will be more than double what it was when the plant opened.

Organizer Keith Brower Brown of Labor Notes said the union in Spring Hill could serve as “a potential union anchor for massive factories under construction for the emerging Southern battery belt.” Tens of thousands of new EV battery jobs are expected to come online across the South in the coming months, including at plants owned by Ford in Tennessee and Kentucky.

The US South has been a magnet for auto plants for decades, as non-unionized plants provide higher profitability for manufacturers — the companies have found the region attractive due to lucrative incentives and lower rates of unionization. Many automakers are building EVs and hybrid vehicles in the area, including EV automaker Tesla, which leans toward the South for manufacturing due to its historical antagonism toward labor and low levels of unionization.

Recently, however, a homegrown movement of Southern autoworkers is emerging, with many autoworkers migrating to union protections as a way to win a better life, on and off the job. “The new jobs of the South will be union jobs,” said Tim Smith, a regional director for the UAW.

In 2023 UAW members at the Big Three — GM, Ford, and Stellantis — argued that industry’s record profits should result in record contracts. At that time, GM agreed to accept a union without an election at its Ultium plants if a majority of workers asked to join one. The UAW won favorable new contracts after striking.

The US Department of Energy gave Ultium a $2.5 billion loan to build its plants in Ohio, Michigan, and Tennessee.

One of the first states where the Stand Up movement caught momentum with non-union autoworkers was Alabama. Then followed Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, who reached the 30% milestone in early December, less than two weeks after non-union autoworkers nationwide launched their campaign to join the UAW. By February, more than 50% of VW workers had signed up to join the union. In April, 4,300 workers there made history as they became the first Southern autoworkers outside of the Big Three to win their union.

GM’s Spring Hill, Tennessee complex, combined with the company’s biggest US assembly plant in Arlington, Texas, yielded more than 7,000 UAW members at GM facilities in the South. Of course, that number will have to be recalculated with the recent Spring Hill Ultium plant UAW announcement.

Why Collective Bargaining is Important for Workers

The term “collective bargaining” describes the negotiation process between employers and organized labor. It is intended to create agreements that modulate working salaries, operating conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers’ compensation and rights for workers. Collective bargaining welcomes trade unions to represent workers. It also goes so far as to organize strikes as deemed necessary to place pressure on corporate decision makers so workers’ concessions are heard and met.

Unions and collective bargaining increase workers’ democratic voice; raise wages and build wealth; and improve conditions for all workers, according to the Center for American Progress. Nearly 70% of Americans support unions, and support is especially high among younger generations.

States have the authority to enact public sector bargaining laws that uphold the right of state and local government workers to bargain over wages, benefits, and working conditions. Most US companies today insist on a federally monitored election even if a majority of their workers sign cards to join a union.

In May, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) — now the Democrat’s Vice Presidential candidate — signed a comprehensive labor reform package into law that included several updates to the state’s Public Employment Labor Relations Act. The law ensures that new public employees learn about the benefits of union membership and allow unions to communicate with workers through modern and convenient means, including:

• by directing public employers to provide routinely updated contact information for all employees in a bargaining unit to their representative;
• permitting representatives to meet with all new hires within their first 30 days of employment; and,
• allowing communication via work email systems.

Final Thoughts about Spring Hill & the Vote to Unionize

“This is a great day for Ultium workers and for every worker in Tennessee and the South,” said Trudy Lindahl, a worker at Ultium in Spring Hill. “Southern workers are ready to stand up and win our fair share by winning our unions. And when we have a free and fair choice, we will win every time.”

In May, however, the UAW lost a vote at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama, even though a majority of workers there had signed cards to join the union. At this writing, more than 50% of workers at Mercedes outside Tuscaloosa and more than 30% of Hyundai workers in Montgomery have signed union cards and continue their campaigns to join the UAW.

The UAW outlines how, in January, corporate front groups like the National Right to Work Committee and the Center for Union Facts started attacking non-union autoworkers who are standing up for themselves, their families, and their communities. They want to keep wages low and profits high, so the companies can continue to send outsized profits overseas and “provide kickbacks to their political cronies in Southern statehouses and beyond.”